dropped<\/a> Bruce St. James. Besides Cochran, others who filled in during the interim included Ramblin\u2019 Ray Stevens, Pete McMurray and Matt Bubala.<\/p>\n\"When I filled in, I realized how much I missed it so I'm thrilled to be back,\" Cochran told me.<\/p>\n
Why now? \"To be fair, WLS has never had the opportunity to fire me,\" he said. \"Those great call letters deserve a great Chicago show, which I'm going to try to do every morning.\"<\/p>\n
Except for a one-year stint in Detroit in the late \u201990s, Cochran has been a Chicago radio fixture since 1993. His longest runs were two stints at WGN, including six years as morning host ending in 2019 when his contract was not renewed.<\/p>\n
\"I've been talking to myself for two and a half years, so I can't wait to start talking on WLS,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Cochran said he will continue to host the twice-weekly podcast \u201cLive From My Office\u201d on Mondays and Wednesdays, and \"The Deep 6 with Patty Steele\" on Fridays.<\/p>\n
In the latest Nielsen Audio survey, WLS tied for 28th in mornings with a 0.8 percent share and cumulative weekly audience of 88,800. Overall the station ranks 27th with a 1.1 share and 200,500 weekly cume.<\/p>\n
Here is the text of Tichenor's email to staff:<\/strong><\/p>\nGood Morning,<\/em><\/p>\nI am pleased to announce that Steve Cochran will be the new AM drive host on 890 WLS-AM.<\/em><\/p>\nSteve is a proven winner in Chicago radio that will bring his talent and deep Chicago roots to \u201cThe Steve Cochran Show,\u201d that will air weekdays from 5:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. beginning Wednesday, June 15, 2022.<\/em><\/p>\nI'm delighted to welcome Steve to our team, where I know he will bring his wisdom, wit, and political prowess to morning drive. Our listeners need a place to feel safe to express their opinions while having a destination for entertainment, news, and conservative conversation. Steve will provide that for our Chicagoland audience. I'm looking forward to growing 890 with Steve Cochran in morning drive.<\/em><\/p>\nPlease join me in welcoming Steve Cochran to the Big 89.<\/em><\/p>\nThank you,<\/em><\/p>\nSteph<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ten years ago this fall the legendary Don Wade stepped down as morning star at WLS 890-AM as he battled the brain cancer that eventually would take his life. With him and his wife\/on-air partner, Roma Wade, went the last successful morning show at the heritage news\/talk station. Now, with the station\u2019s ratings at a... Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33608"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33608"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33608\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33618,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33608\/revisions\/33618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}